Posts

As part of the ITC-ILO SURE project, a research study was conducted by Forum Internazionale ed Europeo di Ricerche Sull’Immigrazione (FIERI) between September and December 2018, with the aim of analysing how Morocco and Tunisia address the social and professional reintegration of returning nationals after a migrating abroad.

The study aims to examine existing data at national level, and to undertake a comparative analysis of the target countries’ strategies for return and reintegration policies of migrant nationals. Empirical research was conducted through two field missions in Morocco (end of October 2018) and Tunisia (early November 2018). Field investigators conducted extensive semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders (institutional actors, non-state actors and independent experts) in both target countries. Finally, a set of ad hoc recommendations was formulated to support the strengthening of existing initiatives and the establishment of stronger reintegration programs for returnees in both countries.

The national reports and the comparative regional report of this study will soon be available on our website.

Lorenzo Gabrielli coordinated the research team; Field research in Morocco and Tunisia was conducted by Jesús García-Luengos and Gaia Testore, respectively; and the scientific coordination of the project on behalf of FIERI was provided by Ferruccio Pastore.

In the recent past, bilateral labour agreements and memoranda of understanding on labour migration have gained prominence as tools facilitating the cross-border movement of workers.

While these instruments can play an important role in ensuring that the labour rights of migrant workers are protected at all stages of the migration process, in practice they exhibit a number of shortcomings regarding their design, content, monitoring, implementation and impact.

In response to these challenges and opportunities, the International Training Centre of the ILO (Turin Campus, Italy) organized the first edition of its training course on Negotiating Bilateral Labour Agreements, with a view to increasing the potential of BLAs to improve governance of labour migration, promote and protect the rights of migrant workers, and enhancing migration and development linkages. The overall objective of the course was to reinforce the negotiation skills and techniques of officials who may work in the adoption and follow up of bilateral and/or multilateral agreements.

The course was attended by 24 participants originating from 10 different countries, including a significant representation of governments officials and representatives of employers and workers’ organizations from North Africa (specifically from Morocco, Tunisia and Mauritania). Throughout the course, which contributed to fostering an interregional South-South dialogue on migration governance, participants from these regions were invited to reflect on the role of bilateral agreements as a tool which can support not only a positive experience for workers abroad, but also a successful social and professional reintegration upon migrant workers’ eventual return to their home countries.